Great Resources

April 12, 2006

Top Ten Useful Grammar and Punctuation Points I Learned as a Techwriter and in Life in General (and Three to Ignore)

One of the pivotal events in my life
was that Tracy Faleide at Great Plains Software (now owned by Bill) decided to hire raw youngsters straight out of college. Once I was
on board there as a techwriter, I learned more useful information about writing from
Shewi than I did in college. (I'd have to say, though, that looking back, my high school English education was pretty good.) Fifteen years later, I'm still in the
techwriting/editing/authoring field and loving it.

I'm taking a break from OpenOffice tips
today to just talk about various grammar and punctuation tips I
learned from Shewi, from editing, and various other sources. The key thing about many of these items, and useful grammar and punctuation in general, is they're not just fancy-schmancy rules. They are important rules that affect the meaning of what you say. I think most people would agree is an important component of communication--controlling the meaning of what you're writing.

Some of them don't affect meaning, but do make it easier and more pleasant for your readers. That means they're more likely to read your email, spec, or marketing blurb, and thus get the information you're trying to convey.

I hope you'll find these useful for general business writing, technical specs, emails to your VP, or wherever it's important that the writing be clear and correct.

10. Hyphenation is
important.

Hyphenation is important because it affects what a sentence means, not just because your snotty English major friend will sneer at you for using it incorrectly.

You use hyphenation in two ways (at least).

a) Hyphenation determines what describes what You use it
to show what an adjective modifies(describes, or applies to).

Theorange rimmed vase is not
the same as the orange-rimmed vase.

If you have no hyphen between the two adjectives, orange and rimmed, then the adjectives have to both modify the following noun, vase.

In the example, that means that you have a vase which is orange, and which is also rimmed.

Here's an orange rimmed vase.

However, if you have a hyphen between the adjectives, everything changes. The hyphen means the first adjective modifies the second, and then together, they modify the noun.

Here's an orange-rimmed vase . It's a vase that has an orange rim. The hyphen shows that orange
modifies rimmed, not the vase itself.

b) Hyphenation is used with compound words You also
use it with compound words like on-line (or online), re-create (as in
re-create the error), etc. With this you will drive yourself crazy
trying to figure out what's right so just pick a standard and follow
it consistently. The standard can be what your friend the writer
says, or what the Chicago Manual of Style says, or whatever. Just be
consistent.

Me, I like to combine the word unless
it's unclear without the hyphen. For instance, re-create is
definitely different than recreated. But you know what I mean by
“online”—you don't need me to write “on-line” to understand
it.

Instead, use semicolons, commas, or the
occasional dash or colon. Or just end the sentence with a period and
start again with a capital letter. Ellipsis is almost always just a lazy substitute for the right punctuation.

I wanted to
tell her that her skirt was tucked into her
pantyhose...unfortunately, she went up on stage too soon.

I wanted to tell her that her skirt
was tucked into her pantyhose; unfortunately, she went up on stage
too soon.

A semicolon separates these two
clauses. A clause is
something that could technically be a separate sentence since each
has a noun and verb. When you have two clauses like this, you can
separate them with a semicolon.

I wanted to
tell her that her skirt was tucked into her pantyhose. Unfortunately,
she went up on stage too soon.

See? The two clauses are just fine as
separate sentences. Making two sentences is another very legitimate
approach.

I wanted to
tell her that her skirt was tucked into her pantyhose, but she went
up on stage too soon.

The
but means that the second part of the sentence is no longer something
that could stand by itself. Therefore, with this you just use a
comma.

If you write a lot of parenthetical
phrases (and you know who you are) , your readers will find it annoying to have to keep ducking in (and out) of the main part of the
sentence. Thus I strongly (but politely) suggest that if it's
important to say, just say it. Skip the parentheses. Try your
sentence without the parentheses, and just use commas if necessary.
If the parentheses aren't important to your writing, leave'em out. Or consider whether the
parenthetical phrase itself is necessary. Sometimes you can totally
skip it.

Do use parentheses to partition off key information that, if presented normally, might interrupt the flow of the text. One example is using them to provide a definition for a word that might be unfamiliar.

I'd say you could apply the same
reduction advice to dashes, too. If it's important to say it—and it
always is, isn't it?—then consider whether it needs to be set
off—set off and emphasized—by dashes. Usually you can just use
commas, or start a new sentence. Dashes can be disruptive and
annoying to read when they show up a lot.

7. Remember the comma.

If you would pause speaking, then you'd
probably pause writing it.

If you're going to give a public
speech be sure that your skirt isn't tucked inside your pantyhose.

Bleagh. Too stiff.

If you're going to give a public
speech, be sure that your skirt isn't tucked inside your pantyhose.

This is better and more natural.

Another comma issue has to do with a series of items. Here's an example. Some people say they will pick up
eggs, butter and bread. Others like me will pick up
eggs, butter, and bread. The comma before and is called a
serial comma and many wars have been fought over which is better. It
doesn't matter. Just pick a way and stick with it.

6. Few and less and more (but is
less more?)

Few is for
items. Less is for quantities. You can have fewer raindrops
and less rain; you can have fewer hairs but less hair.

Here's the tricky part—when
quantities are reduced (fewer and less), the words are different, but
when quantities are increased (more), the words are the same. More hairs, more hair.

5. Dangling
participles are as bad as you've heard.

A participle is a
verb ending in ing used as an adjective, as in the following sentence.

Feeling
embarrassed about her haircut, Felicity hid in the closet.

That's absolutely correct. The participle comes first, and the noun
in the next phrase is what the participle modifies. The phrase after the noun goes with that noun too. Felicity was
feelingembarrassed, and she also hid in the closet.

Here's how it works. The noun is a big fat greedy pig and takes the phrase before it, and after it, for itself. That means both phrases had better make sense with the noun you're using.

Here are some correct examples.

Sizzling happily, the stewsmelled delicious. The stew is the one that is sizzling happily and smelling delicious.

Beaming widely, Jenny accepted the Miss Linux crown. Jenny is the one who is beaming widely and who is accepting the crown.

What if you get a noun that doesn't work with both phrases? This happens most often when you have an implied subject (examples follow) and another noun shows up for the party.

Belindahad had a bad day. Beingtired, the bedlooked great. In this sentence, the bed is the noun so both phrases go with bed. The bed certainly looked great but it absolutely was not tired. Belinda is tired. You would
rewrite this; one way is Belinda had had a bad day and was very
tired, so the bed looked great.

George
was depressed. Havinglost the election, the
Bahamaswere appealing.George is the one who lost the
election, not the Bahamas. You would rewrite this; one way is George
was depressed after having lost the election. The Bahamas seemed very
appealing.

4. Lay off using lie incorrectly

Lie is for what
you do with your own body. Lay is for what you do to other things.
Lay is also the past tense of lie, unfortunately, which makes things
confusing.

Lie: I am
going to lie down right now; I lay down yesterday.

Lay: I am
going to lay my briefcase on the table. I laid it on
the bench yesterday.

If you use lay, it had better be because you're currently taking something and putting it down someplace, or because you yourself, in the past, became horizontal. (Or because you're an attorney in the Enron trial, or you got lucky over spring break.)

3. Keep your intransitive verbs off
my body

Some verbs are
transitive (like lay), which means you can do them to other
things. You can raisehell, you can raise your hand, but you can't
just spend a day raising. Raise is a transitive verb.

Some verbs are
intransitive (like lie), which means you just do them. You
sleep. You dream. You don't sleep yourself, you don't sleep your
bed—you just sleep.

Some verbs are
both. You can just lie around the house eating, or you can eat
a sandwich.

You probably know
which is which; just pay attention and don't get sucked into using
transitive verbs intransitively.

2. Wherever possible without
sounding dorky, put only in front of the thing it applies to.

Is this sentence correct?

You only
need to answer three questions to win the prize.

We don't really know without asking the writer. Since I wrote the example, though, I can tell you that the sentence is incorrect. The writer wants to say that while there are multiple questions, you need to answer only three to win the prize. So the statement isn't quite accurate. Only applies to three, not need.

If you put only
in front of the thing it doesn't apply to, the sentence can be
confusing.

Here's another example.

Only think
about three questions.

Does that mean you
should only think, rather than give the answer, or does it mean you
just need to think about three of the questions?

The way the sentence
is written, only applies to think, which means you shouldn't respond
aloud, or write down answers, or do anything else. If that's the intent, the sentence is correct.

If the writer
wanted to tell the reader that there are multiple questions and the
reader only needs to think about three, however, the sentence is
wrong.

So put only
immediately in front of what it modifies, unless it sounds really
stupid that way.

1. Use the word that is
correct (the correct word, which helps your readers understand you, is always a good choice)

When do you use which, and when do you use that? This is another grammatical point that very much affects the meaning of what you say.

Which is
for additional information you feel like providing. That is for specifying one item among several.

Here are some examples and some more explanation.

Let's say you're
in the middle of doing a jigsaw puzzle, and you want your friend to reach over and give you a
specific piece. You would say “Give me the piece that has the
star on it.” That reduces the choices to the one that matches the
information in the phrase following that.

If, however, there were only
one puzzle piece left, you could correctly say, “Give me the puzzle piece,
which has the star on it.” You're just talking about The Puzzle Piece, but mentioning, just because you think it might be interesting or informative, that it has a star on it. Whichgives additional
nice-to-know information. It doesn't restrict the way that does.

That would be kind of silly thing to say in this context, since
you don't really need to tell your friend that the only puzzle piece left has a star
on it. She can tell. But it's correct.

A better example of when to use which
would be this sentence.

Rye bread, which is very nutritious, is an
excellent basis for any sandwich.

Which is the kind of word you might use in a novel; that is the kind of word you'd more likely use in technical directions. Which is more on the pleasantly descriptive side; that provides important information.

The phrase you use
which in is always surrounded by commas, as in the above rye bread
example. Or the which phrase might have a comma before it and a period after it, as in "Pass me the puzzle piece,which has a star on it."

Here's what I think you can
ignore.

A lot of people make a lot of fuss about these items. I think they don't matter and you can just do what comes naturally.

Ignore the rule about not ending a sentence
with a preposition (up to a point). A preposition is anything, as I was taught in grade school, that a squirrel can be in relationship to a tree. In,above,beside, etc.

That said, I think prepositions at the end are just fine if the sentence is clear, accurate, and understandable. If I tell you that I give up, you understand me. Are you going to be one of
those people who say “This is something up with which I will not
put?” Of course not.

Now, you might not want to say It's the bananas that I'm sick of. You would say I'm sick of bananas because it's more direct, vivid, etc. It's better writing. If you've got a lot of sentences ending in prepositions, that probably indicates some awkwardness or excessive length. You could tighten up your writing to make it clearer and shorter by rewriting those sentences.

Ignore the rule about not splitting
infinitives. This is a stupid hangover from Latin. Split your
infinitives. Tell the world that you're going toaggressivelypursue learning to program in Ajax. (The infinitive verb to pursue is split in the middle by the adverb aggressively.)

Just forget about forming plurals
for words that end in ex, using ices. I think this is silly. In
English, we form plurals with s or es—jobs, sandwiches, etc. So
talk abut indexes, not indices, unless you go to work each day in an actual ivory tower.

You're absolutely right. I actually deleted a couple "that"s when I was rewriting it. If you can do without it, you don't need it. You can also do things like "use the blue lawnmower" rather than "use the lawnmower that is blue" if the restrictive phrase is short.

From "Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation" by Lynne Truss, easily the most entertaining book on punctuation I have ever read. I think you'll get a kick out of it, Solveig.

Yes, it's true that you would emphasize the bananas in that sentence, as an implied contrast to what had been discussed before.

You know, I'm suddenly thinking it would be fun to take famous lines from movies and redo them, either correctly or incorrectly, to show grammar rules. Imagine a famous crusader for clean food urging people to stick their heads out their windows and shout "It's the bananas I'm sick of and I'm not going to take it anymore!" ;>